2 deaths overshadow end of Chess Olympiad

Player dies mid-game, another found dead at hotel

8/15/2014

STOCKHOLM — A major international chess tournament in northern Norway has ended on a grim note, with one player dying in the middle of a game and another found dead in a hotel room.

Organizers say a 67-year-old member of the Seychelles team collapsed and died during the final round Thursday of the Chess Olympiad in Tromsoe.

Tournament spokesman Jarle Heitmann says another player, from Uzbekistan, was found dead in a hotel room later Thursday.

Heitmann said today that both died of natural causes. Tromsoe police said on Twitter there was “no crime” suspected in either case.

China won the men’s title and Russia won the women’s title in the biennial chess tournament.